Ecuador's Correa breezes to 2nd re-election

Ecuador's President and candidate for re-election Rafael Correa, top right, and vice presidential candidate Jorge Glass, top left, accompanied by relatives, celebrate after presidential elections in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013. Although official results had still not been released, Correa celebrated his second re-election as Ecuador's president after an exit poll showed him leading by a wide margin. (AP Photo/Martin Jaramillo)
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Ecuador's President and candidate for re-election Rafael Correa, top right, and vice presidential candidate Jorge Glass, top left, accompanied by relatives, celebrate after presidential elections in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013. Although official results had still not been released, Correa celebrated his second re-election as Ecuador's president after an exit poll showed him leading by a wide margin. (AP Photo/Martin Jaramillo)
/ AP

A woman holds up an image of Ecuador's President and candidate for re-election Rafael Correa after presidential elections in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013. Although official results had still not been released, Correa celebrated his second re-election as Ecuador's president after an exit poll showed him leading by a wide margin. (AP Photo/Martin Jaramillo)— AP

A woman holds up an image of Ecuador's President and candidate for re-election Rafael Correa after presidential elections in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013. Although official results had still not been released, Correa celebrated his second re-election as Ecuador's president after an exit poll showed him leading by a wide margin. (AP Photo/Martin Jaramillo)
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Ecuador's President and candidate for re-election Rafael Correa,left, celebrates with relatives after presidential elections in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013. Although official results had still not been released, Correa celebrated his second re-election as Ecuador's president after an exit poll showed him leading by a wide margin. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)— AP

Ecuador's President and candidate for re-election Rafael Correa,left, celebrates with relatives after presidential elections in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013. Although official results had still not been released, Correa celebrated his second re-election as Ecuador's president after an exit poll showed him leading by a wide margin. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
/ AP

Presidential candidate Guillermo Lasso of the Creating Opportunities Party ( CREO ) waves to supporters at a polling station where he accompanied his running mate Juan Carlos Solines, not seen, to vote in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013. Lasso, a former Banco de Guayaquil executive president, is the leading opponent to President Rafel Correa who is highly favored to win a second re-election. Ecuadoreans elect president, vice-president and National Assembly members Sunday.(AP Photo/Dominique Riofrio)— AP

Presidential candidate Guillermo Lasso of the Creating Opportunities Party ( CREO ) waves to supporters at a polling station where he accompanied his running mate Juan Carlos Solines, not seen, to vote in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013. Lasso, a former Banco de Guayaquil executive president, is the leading opponent to President Rafel Correa who is highly favored to win a second re-election. Ecuadoreans elect president, vice-president and National Assembly members Sunday.(AP Photo/Dominique Riofrio)
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President Rafael Correa waves to supporters as he leaves a polling station after voting in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013. President Rafael Correa gestures to photographers as he votes at a polling station in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013. Ecuadoreans elect president, vice-president and National Assembly members Sunday with Correa highly favored to win a second re-election.(AP Photo/Martin Jaramillo)— AP

President Rafael Correa waves to supporters as he leaves a polling station after voting in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013. President Rafael Correa gestures to photographers as he votes at a polling station in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013. Ecuadoreans elect president, vice-president and National Assembly members Sunday with Correa highly favored to win a second re-election.(AP Photo/Martin Jaramillo)
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A woman casts her ballot for parliament members at a polling station in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb.17, 2013. Ecuadoreans elect president, vice-president and National Assembly members Sunday with President Rafael Correa highly favored to win a second re-election.(AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)— AP

A woman casts her ballot for parliament members at a polling station in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb.17, 2013. Ecuadoreans elect president, vice-president and National Assembly members Sunday with President Rafael Correa highly favored to win a second re-election.(AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
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A woman waits in line to vote next to a soldier at a polling station in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb.17, 2013. Ecuadoreans elect president, vice-president and National Assembly members Sunday with President Rafael Correa highly favored to win a second re-election.(AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)— AP

A woman waits in line to vote next to a soldier at a polling station in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb.17, 2013. Ecuadoreans elect president, vice-president and National Assembly members Sunday with President Rafael Correa highly favored to win a second re-election.(AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
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Voters fill their balots up at a polling station in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb.17, 2013. Ecuadoreans elect president, vice-president and National Assembly members Sunday with President Rafael Correa highly favored to win a second re-election.(AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)— AP

Voters fill their balots up at a polling station in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb.17, 2013. Ecuadoreans elect president, vice-president and National Assembly members Sunday with President Rafael Correa highly favored to win a second re-election.(AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
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A woman fills her ballot up at a polling station in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb.17, 2013. Ecuadoreans elect president, vice-president and National Assembly members Sunday. President Rafael Correa highly favored to win a second re-election.(AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)— AP

A woman fills her ballot up at a polling station in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb.17, 2013. Ecuadoreans elect president, vice-president and National Assembly members Sunday. President Rafael Correa highly favored to win a second re-election.(AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
/ AP

Ecuador's President and candidate for re-election Rafael Correa, top right, and vice presidential candidate Jorge Glass, top left, accompanied by relatives, celebrate after presidential elections in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013. Although official results had still not been released, Correa celebrated his second re-election as Ecuador's president after an exit poll showed him leading by a wide margin. (AP Photo/Martin Jaramillo)— AP

Ecuador's President and candidate for re-election Rafael Correa, top right, and vice presidential candidate Jorge Glass, top left, accompanied by relatives, celebrate after presidential elections in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013. Although official results had still not been released, Correa celebrated his second re-election as Ecuador's president after an exit poll showed him leading by a wide margin. (AP Photo/Martin Jaramillo)
/ AP

Ecuador's President and candidate for re-election Rafael Correa, right, and vice presidential candidate Jorge Glass celebrate after presidential elections in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013. Although official results had still not been released, Correa celebrated his second re-election as Ecuador's president after an exit poll showed him leading by a wide margin. (AP Photo/Martin Jaramillo)— AP

Ecuador's President and candidate for re-election Rafael Correa, right, and vice presidential candidate Jorge Glass celebrate after presidential elections in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013. Although official results had still not been released, Correa celebrated his second re-election as Ecuador's president after an exit poll showed him leading by a wide margin. (AP Photo/Martin Jaramillo)
/ AP

Supporters of Ecuador's President and candidate for re-election Rafael Correa gather to celebrate after presidential elections in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013. Although official results had still not been released, Correa celebrated his second re-election as Ecuador's president after an exit poll showed him leading by a wide margin. (AP Photo/Martin Jaramillo)— AP

Supporters of Ecuador's President and candidate for re-election Rafael Correa gather to celebrate after presidential elections in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013. Although official results had still not been released, Correa celebrated his second re-election as Ecuador's president after an exit poll showed him leading by a wide margin. (AP Photo/Martin Jaramillo)
/ AP

Supporters of Ecuador's President and candidate for re-election Rafael Correa gather to celebrate after presidential elections in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013. Although official results had still not been released, Correa celebrated his second re-election as Ecuador's president after an exit poll showed him leading by a wide margin. (AP Photo/Dominique Riofrio)— AP

Supporters of Ecuador's President and candidate for re-election Rafael Correa gather to celebrate after presidential elections in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013. Although official results had still not been released, Correa celebrated his second re-election as Ecuador's president after an exit poll showed him leading by a wide margin. (AP Photo/Dominique Riofrio)
/ AP

Supporters of Ecuador's President and candidate for re-election Rafael Correa gather to celebrate after presidential elections in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013. Although official results had still not been released, Correa celebrated his second re-election as Ecuador's president after an exit poll showed him leading by a wide margin. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)— AP

Supporters of Ecuador's President and candidate for re-election Rafael Correa gather to celebrate after presidential elections in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013. Although official results had still not been released, Correa celebrated his second re-election as Ecuador's president after an exit poll showed him leading by a wide margin. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
/ AP

QUITO, Ecuador 
President Rafael Correa, a fiery-tongued leftist who has endeared himself to the lower classes by expanding Ecuador's welfare state but drawn wide rebuke for intolerance of dissent, breezed to a second re-election on Sunday.

The U.S.-educated economist won 56.9 percent of the vote against 23.8 percent for his closest challenger, former banker Guillermo Lasso, with 57 percent of the vote counted.

Correa, 48, called the outcome a victory for his "citizens' revolution," and promised to further reduce poverty, which the United Nations says has dropped nearly five percentage points to 32.4 percent since he first took office in 2007.

"We are only here to serve you. Nothing for us. Everything for you," Correa told jubilant supporters from the balcony of the Carondelet presidential palace, celebrating long before official results were released.

Lasso, the ex-head of the Banco de Guayaquil, had run a business-friendly but relatively tame campaign, and conceded as first official results were released. Former President Lucio Gutierrez won 6 percent. The rest of the vote was divided among five other candidates.

Correa has brought surprising stability to an oil-exporting nation of 14.6 million with a history of unruliness that cycled through seven presidents in the decade before him. With the help of oil prices that have hovered around $100 a barrel, he has raised living standards among the poor and widened the welfare state with region-leading social spending.

Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank, said Correa has shown himself to be the "undisputed rhetorical leader of Latin America's left" and will now see his standing enhanced there.

But Shifter said Correa's moves to concentrate power have damaged Ecuador's "already precarious institutions" while his ramping up of social spending "is simply applying the standard recipe for many populist governments in the region." While it succeeds in building political support in the short term, it's not clear whether it is sustainable, he said.

Correa's result Sunday topped the 51.7 percent he won in his first re-election in April 2009 in a ballot set up by a voter-approved constitutional rewrite. Correa is now legally barred from another 4-year term.

Correa dedicated his victory to Venezuela's cancer-stricken President Hugo Chavez, his close ally among Latin America's alliance of leftist leaders.

While a practitioner of one-man rule in the Chavez mold, he is more respectful of private property.

Ecuador relies on petroleum for more than half of its export earnings, and he has used this oil wealth to make public education and health care more accessible, and lay thousands of kilometers (miles) of new highways.

Foreign investment has suffered, however, and Lasso ran on guaranteeing multinational businesses more favorable terms, such as abolishing a 5 percent tax on capital removed from Ecuador.

Correa said he's happy to have more foreign investment but "it's better not to have it than to mortgage the country in the name of that pipe dream called foreign investment."

He did not explain, meanwhile, how he planned to pay for efforts to "quicken and deepen" poverty reduction. Skeptical economists say the state can't afford it without major new revenue sources.